(M)embers of our congregations should not be offended at this time if someone chooses not to shake the other person’s hand at the sign of peace.

If you are ill, the appropriate response to someone extending a sign of peace might be to bow to them and say, ‘Peace be with you,’ to avoid bodily contact, or one might wave slightly at the other person.

This, from Father Michael Dugan, Dallas diocesan liturgy director. I like the bow. That works well. Slight wave: that doesn’t. I’d stick with the bow: dignified, non-secular,

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Todd lives in the Pacific Northwest, serving a Catholic parish as a lay minister.

8 Responses to Bow If You Must

One of the holiest priests I’ve ever known would only bow at the Signum Pacis, both as a gesture of humility and as a holdover from his decades in South Asian missionary work. I wish he hadn’t left the altar at all, but the parish hated him as it was.

Actually I do the wave when I’m ill. I always make a point to extend the peace to each of my choir members and musicians, but if I’m sick I simply do a short wave and say “I am ill. Peace be with you all.”

I have an acquaintance whose cancer treatments make her vulnerable to infection and thus she is reluctant to shake hands during the Sign of Peace or to hold hands during the Our Father. Not all are understanding of her hesitation.

The handshake and the wave have become so mechanized that the purpose of the Sign of Peace is now lost. I like the bow. Not being an everyday mannerism, it heightens a sense of reverence and sincerity. But I suppose in our casual culture even that would soon be maligned.

At a monastery I know the sisters have what seems like a well-choreographed bow-holy_air_kiss-bow sequence at the pax. It’s probably not choreographed at all but just convention as to which cheek is first.

In my diocese, they had something official about the cup and the sign of peace, but no mention of communion in the hand. Any thoughts on having a priest put his hand close to the mouths of successive communicants? (link should be to an AP photo by Eduardo Verdugo of a Mexican priest wearing a mask offering communion to the tongue of a woman who has a face mask on her neck to accommodate the gesture.)